Michael James - The Power of Arunachala, #5

January 6, 2004

The Gurutvam of Arunachala

Arunachala has always been renowned as the bestower of liberation, the destroyer of the ego, the remover of the false notion 'I am the body' - as the jnana-Guru par excellence.

When Brahma and Vishnu began to quarrel, being deluded by pride and egoism, Lord Arunachala Siva appeared before them in the form of a column of fire, thereby vanquishing their egoism and teaching them true knowledge. When Sakti, Goddess Parvati, wished to attain a state in which she could do no wrong, Lord Siva sent her to Arunachala, where she merged and became one with him. Thus, even to Brahma and Vishnu, Arunachala was Guru, and to Parvati it was the place where she lost her separate individuality.

Throughout the ages saints and sages have sung verses in Sanskrit, Tamil and other Indian languages extolling the unique power of Arunachala to root out the ego and to bestow Self-knowledge. All the four great Saiva sages of Tamil Nadu, Manikkavachagar, Sundaramurti, Appar and Jnanasambandhar, have sung in praise of Arunachala. In one verse often pointed out by Sri Bhagavan, Jnanasambandhar described this hill as being jnana-tiral, a dense mass of jnana. And Sundaramurti, singing in Tiruvanaikka, remembers Arunachala and sings, 'O Annamalai, you can be known only to those who give up the attachment to the body'.

These puranic stories and songs of ancient sages all confirm the fact that Arunachala is the supreme jnana-Guru. But this fact has received its most striking confirmation from Sri Bhagavan. In verse nineteen of Aksharamanamalai he explicitly states that Arunachala shines as the form of his Guru; and in the same verse he reveals the function of the real Guru, namely to destroy all our defects, including the root-defect, the ego, to bestow all good qualities upon us and to rule over us.

In many of his other verses Sri Bhagavan has clearly indicated that the role of Arunachala is the role of the Sadguru. For example, in Aksharamanamalai he sings that Arunachala roots out the ego of those who think of it (verse 1), that it annihilates those who approach it as God (verse 48) and that it destroys the attachment of those who come to it with attachment (verse 77). He also reveals that Arunachala instructs through silence (verse 36) and that it teaches the path of self-enquiry (verse 44); and he shows us the way of praying to Arunachala to bestow jnana (verse 40) to reveal Self as the reality (verse 43) and to make us give up the attachment to the body (verse 75). He has also confirmed from his own experience the power of Arunachala as Guru. In verse eight of Sri Arunachala Navamanimalai he sings that, in order to put an end to his sufferings in the world, Arunachala 'gave me his own state'; and in verse nine he describes the wonder of Arunachala's grace saying, 'You entered my mind, drew me and established me in your own state'.

All that Sri Bhagavan has said about the power of Arunachala tallies exactly with what he has said about the power of the Guru. In verse 268 of Guru Vachaka Kovai (The Garland of Guru's Sayings) he says that the Guru is he who possesses the supreme power to make any soul who comes to him merge into Self, the knowledge beyond all speech. The Guru works in many ways to make the disciple merge into Self. 'He gives a push from ''without'' and exerts a pull from ''within'', so that you may be fixed in the Centre,' says Sri Bhagavan in Maharshi's Gospel, p. 36. From 'without' the Guru gives verbal instructions to turn the disciple's mind towards Self, and he also enables the disciple to have association (satsang) with his form, and thereby to gain the necessary strength and love to turn within and attend to Self. To give verbal instructions it is necessary for the Guru to be in human form, but to give satsang and subtle inner guidance he may be in any form.

Sri Bhagavan has come as the Guru in human form to give us all the necessary verbal instructions, and he has revealed that Arunachala is the Guru in the form of a hill with which we can always have satsang. Like any human body, the human form of the Guru will inevitably pass away one day, whereas the form of Arunachala will always remain. Thus, though Sri Bhagavan has left his human form, he has provided us with all the requisite outward help: he has left us with a permanent record of his verbal teachings, and he has shown us a form with which we can always have satsang. Therefore, for the devotees of Sri Bhagavan there will never be any need to search for another outer Guru, because all the necessary help and guidance is ever available for us in the form of the teachings of Sri Bhagavan and the satsang of Arunachala.

The power of the satsang of Arunachala was often confirmed by Sri Bhagavan. Dr. T. N. Krishnaswamy records in the Ramana Pictorial Souvenir, p. 7 that Sri Bhagavan once said to him:

The whole hill is sacred. It is Siva himself. Just as we identify ourselves with a body, so Siva has chosen to identify himself with his hill. Arunachala is pure wisdom (jnana) in the form of a hill. It is out of compassion to those who seek him that he has chosen to reveal himself in the form of a hill visible to the eye. The seeker will obtain guidance and solace by staying near this hill.

from:

The Power of Arunachala

(First published in The Mountain Path, 1982, pp. 75-84.)

By Michael James

( www.davidgodman.org )